Author Topic: Phone robot keeps annoying telemarketers talking for as long as possible (Read 3300 times)

silicon_toad2000 · « **on:** February 02, 2016, 06:11:32 am »

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/phone-robot-keeps-annoying-telemarketers-talking-for-as-long-as-possible-20160201-gmj83u.html

Fed up with aggressive telemarketers calling his home, Roger Anderson initially constructed a simple test that would apply to every new number that called his house, sending auto-dialled calls to a recorded message to waste their time while adding legitimate friends and family to a white list.

While the system worked flawlessly, he noticed most marketing calls were only lasting a few seconds before hanging up. The crafty spammers were calling with auto-diallers that work their way through huge lists of numbers, only forwarding the call to a human telemarketer when a real human victim was heard.

Determined to have his system waste as much of the dodgy telemarketers' time as possible, Anderson made some modifications to his system.

At first he had his recording say "hello, hello, hello" a few times to prompt the auto-dialler to forward to a human. Then he added some "uh-huh"s and "right"s. Then a routine that inserted these non-committal affirmatives in between the caller's script to string them along.

Eventually, he had created an entire algorithm of clips that can keep a marketer talking for minutes on end, and he now posts recordings of those conversations - as well as advice for people affected by endless dodgy marketing - at his blog Jolly Roger Telephone and on the robot's Facebook page.

Most ingeniously, the robot detects a break in the conversation when the caller is trying to break up the long stream of "uh-huh"s, shifting to one of several inane subject changers. These include telling the caller they sound like a friend from high school, and freaking out that a bee is nearby. In each case, the robot then asks the caller to begin again from the start.

A newer version of the robot always asks "is this a real person?" at the start of the call. If the caller doesn't pause to consider the question, the robot knows it's talking to a recording and hits the 1 button a few times to get through to a human.

GhostShip · « **Reply #1 on:** February 02, 2016, 07:53:43 pm »

This is the direct link to the guys haul of fun

http://jollyrogertelephone.com/

Well spotted Silicon

White Stripes · « **Reply #2 on:** February 02, 2016, 11:23:29 pm »

too bad there is no download for this software...

dawning · « **Reply #3 on:** February 03, 2016, 07:46:03 am »

Well, I still think that it's not the best thing to do to avoid those telemarketers. Based on some reports at whycall.me, those telemarketers will keep your number inside their calling list as long as you answer their calls. That's why I suggest you to just don't answer their calls if possible.

Plum · « **Reply #4 on:** February 04, 2016, 05:39:00 am »

Quote from: dawning on February 03, 2016, 07:46:03 am

Well, I still think that it's not the best thing to do to avoid those telemarketers. Based on some reports at whycall.me, those telemarketers will keep your number inside their calling list as long as you answer their calls. That's why I suggest you to just don't answer their calls if possible.

Good point, but if you want to dedicate a phone number as a honeypot, then having a network of these will keep the marketers busy.

White Stripes · « **Reply #5 on:** February 04, 2016, 08:07:40 pm »

for those with land lines getting battered by telemarketers i've found that leaving a fax machine plugged in for about a week thins the herd for a while...

Plum · « **Reply #6 on:** February 05, 2016, 10:07:46 am »

Yes, hearing either of these noise patterns will push them away:

1. Dooooooooooo > oooooooooooh khhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. (modem -- in this case, the first 2 tones are the E and F below "tenor C" and above middle C, and digital hiss on the end, perhaps QAM encoding)

2. Dooooooooooo v errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr khhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. (fax)

Or, there is the autism game. You put someone with autism on the line with the simple rules that whoever hangs up or curses first is the loser, and that the longer they stay on the line, the more points they get.

White Stripes · « **Reply #7 on:** February 05, 2016, 07:59:35 pm »

never thought of it as musical notes due to how harsh it sounds..

something geeky? note: you'll need to go to 1080p to read the text..

[youtube]abapFJN6glo[/youtube]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abapFJN6glo

Quote

Or, there is the autism game. You put someone with autism on the line with the simple rules that whoever hangs up or curses first is the loser, and that the longer they stay on the line, the more points they get.

thats just mean to the autistic person...